Top Tips for Hunting Pressured Bucks

A great tip for hunting pressured bucks is — when hunting natural food sources — where it’s common to have several deer in the immediate area, your setups must offer adequate cover.

Also, if you expect a shot opportunity at a mature buck, every approaching deer must be treated with upmost caution. This means no moving around, excess glassing, or practicing coming to full draw on a deer because “it’s only a doe.”

It only takes one deer to pick you off and alert all the others. It’s also crucial to know where to set up. Conifers, maples, beech and ash are laden with sprawling lower branches that require a lot of trimming for shot opportunities.

In such situations, walk every runway within shooting distance while looking at the tree and pick out the area in the tree that allows the most shot opportunities with the least amount of clearing.

If you can choose between a rough- or smooth-barked tree, choose the latter. Rough-barked trees like white oaks, hickories, locusts and some conifers are difficult to ascend and descend quietly.

If you don’t have a choice, take the extra time to remove rough patches on the tree that might come in contact with your boots and/or forearms when you’re climbing.